Well, this is interestingly timed. Hot on the heels of a report claiming Uber is beginning to work on self-driving technology, Google is supposedly in the process of developing its own ridesharing service.
According to Bloomberg, the program is currently being tested by Google employees, although there's no word on when it would launch publicly. But it poses a problem for both Google and Uber.
Google's chief legal officer and senior veep of corporate development, David Drummond, joined the Uber board in 2013, right around the same time that the search giant's VC arm, Google Ventures, invested $258 million in the ridesharing company.
Bloomberg reports that:
Now there are signs that the companies are more likely to be ferocious competitors than allies. Google is preparing to offer its own ride-hailing service, most likely in conjunction with its long-in-development driverless car project. Drummond has informed Uber's board of this possibility, according to a person close to the Uber board, and Uber executives have seen screenshots of what appears to be a Google ride-sharing app that is currently being used by Google employees. This person, who requested not to be named because the talks are private, said the Uber board is now weighing whether to ask Drummond to resign his position as an Uber board member.
The timing is double-interesting because just last week Google announced the integration of several services into its context-aware Google Now service, and Uber wasn't among the compatible apps – but its closest competitor, Lyft, is included.